A motion adopted yesterday at this year's annual conference of UCU, the country's newly-formed trade union for academics, calls upon members to decide whether to boycott Israel's universities.
Regardless of how they vote in what looks like fast becoming a bi-annual, if not annual, ritual at this time of year, the mere fact only Israel was singled out for this form of special treatment when its human rights track-record can hardly be judged any worse than that of many other countries, even judged by the lights of advocates of the boycott, suggests only one thing. Either what drives them is sheer unadulterated anti-Semitism or else the Arab lobby here is fast acquiring such a degree of influence as bodes ill for the future of this country, let alone that of Israel.
As it happens, in advocating this boycott in protest at Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, UCU could hardly have chosen a less suitable set of Israeli institutions to target. For of all of them, Israel's universities have always been amongst the most dovish and favourably disposed towards the Palestinians. That they have been is something I pointed out in a blog I posted on the Civitas website two years ago, when the same call for a boycott of them was made at the annual conferences of the AUT and NATFHE, then the two trade unions for British academics by whose recent merger UCU was formed.
Their call then proved unsuccessful. It remains to be seen whether this year's call proves otherwise. One thing is certain, however. Many of Britain's academics appear today to be just as dumb and ill-informed about Israel as so many of them showed themselves to be two years ago in supporting such a boycott.
Comments (2)
Why don't they also boycott all the UK and US institutions, in protest at the continuing US/UK occupation (as they would describe it rightly or wrongly) of Iraq?
Posted by acer | July 1, 2008 2:23 PM
Posted on July 1, 2008 14:23
Why don't they also boycott all the UK and US institutions, in protest at the continuing US/UK occupation (as they would describe it rightly or wrongly) of Iraq?
Posted by Robin P Clarke | May 31, 2007 3:08 PM
Posted on May 31, 2007 15:08